Tag Archives: iPod Dock

It’s that time of year again. Schools just about over and everyone heads to the nearest body of water to find relief from the summer sun. Unfortunately this typically means that you have to leave your digital music behind. That is no longer the case with the Grace Digital Eco Terra waterproof/rugged boombox. The Eco Terra allows you to literally take your iPod swimming with you.

Overview

The Eco Terra Boombox is essentially a ruggedized waterproof iPod/MP3 device dock. With that being said it does not include an AM/FM tuner, CD or an 8-Track player. Any device with a standard 3.5mm headphone jack that will fit in the waterproof compartment can make the waterproof 3-inch stereo speakers pump out your favorite Black Eye Peas track. This device currently comes in one color, traffic cone orange.

Portable power for the Eco Terra is produced by 4 C size batteries, and it also includes an AC adaptor for those of you that would like to tether your device to a wall. It’s worth noting that the AC adaptor cannot charge the set of rechargeable C cell batteries that can be used to power your device. Also included in the box is a shoulder strap, 2 carabiners, an AC adapter and your standard user manual.

Overall Build Quality

Upon unboxing it is obvious that the body of the Eco Terra is built with a high quality plastic that looks good and feels durable, which will immediately ease the anxiety you have of drowning your $200 smart phone in the swimming pool. The edges of the Eco Terra are also coated with black rubber to act as a shock buffer.

The transparent watertight compartment for your digital device is secured with 2 tabs that should take quite a shock to accidentally open. This transparent door provides you with a view of the screen on your device and just like the the rest of the device it feels very sturdy. An unfortunate side effect of the transparent door is a greenhouse effect is created causing the compartment to get extremely hot in the Arizona 100+°F heat. We were able to mitigate the greenhouse effect by placing white cardboard on the inside of the door, but you loose the benefit of the seeing the display of your device.

Audio Quality

The Eco Terra seams to be especially picky with the quality of the digital audio input it receives. If your MP3 are downloaded from a P2P service and have poor encoding you are likely to have a very poor experience with the Eco Terra. On the other hand the Eco Terra preforms quite well with quality digital music downloaded from a reputable source such as iTunes or AmazonMP3.com or streamed from a service like Pandora.

The 3-inch waterproof speakers in the Eco Terra can push out a resonable amount of sound before the sound starts to distort. Bass on the Eco Terra is a little on the weak end, but the Eco Terra produces the best sound of any waterproof devices we have used.

Controls

Your iPod, iPhone or Android device can be controlled with the control pad located on the top of the Eco Terra. The functions included in the control pad are Power, Play/Pause, Forward, Reverse and Volume +/-.

Conclusion

Overall the Grace Digital Eco Terra Boombox preformed well in our review tests, although there is room for improvement with the bass output and the greenhouse effect in the waterproof compartment . This device can take quite a bit of abuse and it’s claim of being 100% waterproof has proved to be true. Overall we highly recommend this product if you require a rugged/waterproof digital boombox.

Pros:

This device is 100% waterproof and adds the same ablility to your digital music player

It floats

This device is rugged as claimed

The sound quality is very good for a waterproof device

Cons:

The waterproof compartment for your digital devices is a green house and gets very hot